Three Pillars and Arch-patriarchs of the Popish Synagogues, Treatise 1 · Book 3 · Part 44
The foure and fortieth Chapter returning to the exposition of S. Paul expoundeth this text: As often as ye shal eat of this bread, &c. by S. Hierom & Theophylact.Hesk.
M Heskins hauing wandred abroad to seek the Masse in auncient writers,Fulke. nowe is come home againe to his text, and that is this: As often as you shall eat of this bread & drinke of this cupp▪ you shall shewe forth the Lordes death vntill be come. VponUpon this text (saith he) the ministers of Sathan (for so it pleaseth him to call vsus) hauehave grounded two arguments against the reall presence: One that the sacrament is a memoriall of Christe, and therefore Christ is absent; because a memoriall is of a thing absent: the other, that it is bread, for so the Apostles called it, & not the bodie of Christ. The solution of the first argument is, that the receipt of the sacrament is not a memoriall of Christes bodie, but of his death and passion. This is a noble distinction, but when Christ sayeth: do this in remē brance of mee, whether is the remembrance of Christe, the remembrance of his bodie, or onelyonly of the temporall act of his dying and suffering, which is past? I think all Christian men will confesse, that the communion is a memoriall of Christ that was crucified, and not of his crucifying onelyonly. But when Saint Paul sayeth: vntill he come, how can he say that he is present in bodie, which is yet to come in bodie? To the seconde argument he aunswereth, that Saint Paule calleth it breade, as Christ calleth bread his flesh, and therfore he calleth it, this bread, signifying a speciall bread. No man sayeth the contrarie, but that it is a speciall bread (and as Saint Augustine sayeth) after a certeine manner the bodie of Christe. But if Maister Heskins in this place may denye breade to bee taken in the proper sence for breade, why doth hee exclame against them, that in these wordes: This is my body, denye the worde body, to be taken in the proper signification thereof, for a naturall bodie?
But let vsus take Maister Heskins interpretation of bread, to signifie the bodie of Christe, then the sense of Saint Paules wordes shalbe this: As often as ye eat of the bodie of Christ, and drinke his bloud, you shall shewe the Lordes death vntil he come. How is he that is to come distinct from him that is present? for Saint Paule maketh an exposition of this breade & this cuppe which are present, to shewe the Lordes death, that is to come. But let vsus heare what Saint Ieronyme sayeth, that may helpe him in 1. Cor. 11. Ideo hoc, &c. Therefore our Sauiour hath deliuered this sacrament, that by it we might alwayes remember, that he dyed for vsus. For therefore also when we receiue it, wee are warned of the priestes, that it is the bodie and bloud of Christ, that we might not be thought vnthankefull for his benefites. I like this saying verie well, which teacheth that the sacramēt is therefore called the bodie & bloud of Christ, yt thereby we might be put in minde of the benefite of Christes death, to be thankfull for it. And yt his meaning is none otherwise, his owne wordes shal declare, going both before and after. VponUpon these wordes: Gratias egit, &c. Hoc est benedicens etiam passurus vltimam nobis commemorationem sine memoriam dereliquit. Quemadmodum si quis peregre proficiscens, aliquod pignus ei quem diligit derelinquat, vt quotiescunque illud viderit, possit eius beneficia & amicitias memorare: quod ille si perfectè dilexit, sine ingenti desiderio non potest videre vel fletu. That is blessing or giuing thankes, euen when hee was to suffer, he left to vsus his last commemoration or remembrance. Euen as a man going into a farre countrey, doth leaue some pledge to him whome he loueth, that so often as he seeth it, he may remember his benefites and frendship, which pledge he (if he loued perfectly) cannot beholde without great desire or weeping. In these words you see S. Hierom compareth the sacrament to a pledge, which is left in remembrance of louelove & benefites receiued of him, that in person is absent. The same writer vpō the same words of our text donec venerit vntill he come, thus writeth: Tam diu memoria opus est, donec ipse venire dignetur: So long we hauehave neede of a remembraunce, vntill he him selfe vouchesafe for to come. Nothing can bee more plaine to shewe his meaning, not to be of a carnall or bodilie presence: although as Christ hath giuen vsus the president, he call the bread and cuppe by the name of the bodie and bloud of Christe. The testimonie of Theophylact being a Greeke Gentleman of the lower house, I hauehave hetherto refused to admitt, and therefore in this place also will not trouble the reader with him. The challenge was made of writers within sixe hundreth yeares after Christe, this man liued about a thousande yeres after Christ, yet if I would wrangle about his wordes, he hath nothing that may not bee reasonably construed on our side without any wresting.